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if there a difference between UK ikea kitchens and french


charlotte G
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Hi I wanted to put an ikea kitchen in my house in dept 25 (franche Comte) and thought I might bring one over from Ikea but is the plumbing the same. If anyone has used a UK ikea kitchen and brought it over to france I woul love to hear from them.

Also is there anyone our there who would be able to help us fit it or would like a job to fit it. I also have other jobs like changing the shower room and laying a deck outside, anyone who might be interested please get in contact

Thanks

Charlotte

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The kitchens are the same, except for the plumbing fittings (UK-supplied ones have 15mm tap fittings, French ones 14mm). That said, the bits to convert (the taps use a very standard 1/4" BSP fitting) are available for a few Euros.

I believe (but don't know) that Ikea is cheaper in France (marginally). Is there a store near you?

I've fitted a couple of Ikea kitchens & the quality isn't bad - I don't really like the style of most of the designs. I'm afraid I tend to go for B&Q....

 

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The major difference between Ikea UK and France kitchens is the price.  They are around twice as much here in France.  All other Ikea stuff seems to be cheaper in France, but not kitchens.  Maybe it is because the French are not really fitted kitchen lovers.

We bought our kitchen in Ikea Bordeaux - still seemed preferable to shipping the whole lot over from Croydon or Wembley.

French plumbing fittings can be picked up in any Ikea France store, although some of them are a bit cheap and cheerful.

As for the quality, it is probably the best flat pack kitchen I have ever put together - and I've done a few.  One downside is the hangers for the units, they don't have quite the adjustment of the more expensive brands.

If you can, go for their solid wood worktops, they are great, half the price and much better finish than the ones in the DIY sheds around here.

Hope this helps.

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To connect an Ikea tap, you need 2-off 1/4" BSP (worldwide standard) "male" to 14mm (French/Swiss) "female". These are the braided flexible hoses (which will be supplied with an Ikea tap as 1/4" - 15mm). You do not need to travel 40mins to get these, you can get them from any Bricolage, or professional plumbing supplier. 

The French (of course) have another name for 1/4" BSP (something like 10/12, but I am not sure). Just take the UK ones with you to match up the male end.

 

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Hi Charlotte

Swiss plumbing fittings are different to the French ones - don't know the tech bit but I do know that our French plumbers had to get a different connector to attach our Swiss Ikea basin and a lot of our friends have had the same experience. We found it cheaper to get our kitchen from Lyon about 2 hrs away rather than from Switz (20 mins away) because of the customs issues - it would have been far too many car trips! We did top up on handles etc in Switz. However we did buy all our sanitary ware in France after our first experience.

Also, be careful of buying the Ikea design with the frames round the doors (Dukerum I think). We have put in several Ikea kitchens and this last one was the most difficult and doesn't fit very well. I think they may have withdrawn it in Switz now but I have seen it in France.

Good Luck!

Kathryn

 

 

 

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Where abouts in the Jura? You might not be that far from us, we are about 40min north of Les Rousses. How long have you had a house there. We have had a house in Les pontets (mouthe) for about 2 years and we love it there, it is wonderful and I always look forward to coming to france. I wish I could come more often but works restricts my visits, I am hoping to come over in October Half term. I have 2 little boys aged 4 and 6 and they have a great time, lots of things to see and do etc..

Look forward to hearing from you

Charlotte

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

my husband has just fitted two IKEA kitchens to the two houses that we have in France.  To be perfectly honest, the price of the kitchens was no different to the price that we would have paid for them in England, they most certainly were not half price!

Be very careful with the wooden work surfaces.  They look wonderful but, in the property that we are renting out, they have used the wooden work surface to dry their pots and we are now left with a bumpy work surface and a dark line from where the water sat.  This happened despite the wood treatment!  This has not happened in the other house where the wooden surfaces have been treated with respect.

The kitchens from IKEA are quite modern but have a traditional feel and are very practical and doors, knobs, draws etc can be easily replaced and are quite cheap.

We searched in France for weeks to find a kitchen and ended up going for an IKEA kitchen mainly on price and availability.

If you go to IKEA in France to buy your kitchen, they will do all that they can to help you.  We used IKEA in Bordeaux and always spoke to the same lady - Sophie.  She was excellent and spoke brilliant English, which really did help.  They will advise you on all of the plumbing connections that you will need and will supply them as standard with any sink, dishwasher that you buy from IKEA.  For us the service was second to none.

We do suggest though that if you are ordering a large kitchen with say 200 separate flat packed pieces, I know it is a pain but, do take your time to check off that you have exactly what you should have against your receipt (codes).  This could save a few trips back to IKEA to get the correct pieces, it's worth the hour or so it takes if you live a couple of hours from IKEA!  We made the mistake of not doing this and had to return to IKEA and hire their van a second time to get pieces home that should have come with the first order!!

My husband said that he would be more than happy to fit the kitchen for you if he had some more details from you regarding the room that the kitchen was going in to and the type of kitchen that you had selected.  Please send a PM to discuss this further!

Good luck!!

The Purples  

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The statement that IKEA kitchens are cheaper in U.K. caught my eye because we are about to buy an IKEA kitchen here in France, but are about to make a trip to the U.K. and could take our trailer with us.  We've just checked IKEA's website to compare prices and it would seem that some items are more expensive and some cheaper which seems rather strange!
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[quote]The statement that IKEA kitchens are cheaper in U.K. caught my eye because we are about to buy an IKEA kitchen here in France, but are about to make a trip to the U.K. and could take our trailer with ...[/quote]

We did a three way check of UK versus France versus Germany and all three had different pricing and not always in the same direction.  In the end we reconned we could have saved a couple of hundred euro by cross sourcing - but spent much more transporting everything to France

 

Some of the price differences are due to VAT which is different in all three countries.

Some is due to different transport costs to get the stuff to the national warehouse (carcass made in Italy, doors made in France, feet made in Thailand, draws made in Hungary and goodness knows where the screws, dowels and fittings came from.

And finally some of the differences will be due to simple marketing against the local competition.

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